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Since there is a lot of misinformation about CPU and GPU bottlenecks floating around, here's a short explanation for those who are wondering about CPU and GPU related bottlenecks for games. A CPU prepares frames for the GPU to render. It does object placements, physics and general pre-render. The GPU takes what the CPU prerendered and does the frame (image) render including the details, shading, textures, particles, "triangles", ... Changing the resolution does not affect the CPU a lot. But it affects the GPU a lot since it changes the number of details. EXAMPLE: If a CPU can prepare 60 frames and the GPU can render... 1. 100 frames on 1080p, the GPU will be used 60% meaning a 40% bottleneck. A stronger CPU would be needed. Or increasing the details, resolution. 2. 60 frames on 1440p, there won't be a noticeable bottleneck and the CPU&GPU are evenly matched. A stronger GPU would be bottlenecked by the same CPU. 3. 30 frames on 4K, there won't be a bottleneck. And the CPU could power a stronger GPU. Let's take a low end CPU like the Intel i5 10400F or Ryzen 5 5500, a mid-range CPU like the Ryzen 7 5700X or Intel i5 12400f and a higher end CPU like the Ryzen 7 7700 or Intel i7 13700. And let's take a low end GPU like a Geforce RTX 3050 or Radeon RX 6500, a mid-range GPU like the RTX 3070Ti or the Radeon 6800 and a high-end like the RTX 4080 or the Radeon RX 7900XTX. The monitor resolution of 1080p is considered low end, 1440p (2K) id mid-range and 4K (2160p) is high end. Let's call the low end CPU CPU1, the mid-range CPU2 and high end CPU3. Do the same for the GPU; low end GPU1, mid-range GPU2 and high end GPU3. And the screen resolutions; RES1, RES2 and RES3. We have 27 (3x3x3) possible combinations. The low end GPU won't be bottlenecked by any of the CPU-s on any of the resolutions. That removes 9 options. (CPU,GPU,RES) - what usually happens (1,1,1) - no botttleneck (1,1,2) - no botttleneck (1,1,3) - no botttleneck (1,2,1) - slight CPU bottleneck (1,2,2) - no botttleneck (1,2,3) - no botttleneck (1,3,1) - huge CPU bottleneck (1,3,2) - slight CPU bottleneck (1,3,3) - slight to no CPU bottleneck (2,1,1) - no botttleneck (2,1,2) - no botttleneck (2,1,3) - no botttleneck (2,2,1) - slight to no CPU bottleneck (2,2,2) - no CPU bottleneck (2,2,3) - no CPU bottleneck (2,3,1) - huge CPU bottleneck (2,3,2) - slight to no CPU bottleneck (2,3,3) - no CPU bottleneck (3,1,1) - no CPU bottleneck (3,1,2) - no CPU bottleneck (3,1,3) - no CPU bottleneck (3,2,1) - no CPU bottleneck (3,2,2) - no CPU bottleneck (3,2,3) - no CPU bottleneck (3,3,1) - huge CPU bottleneck (3,3,2) - slight to no CPU bottleneck (3,3,3) - no CPU bottleneck A huge CPU bottleneck means a terrible time gaming (the GPU might enter low power states, having frametime spikes, ...) and a CPU upgrade is needed. A slight CPU bottleneck means a CPU upgrade would be preferable. Or a monitor upgrade (higher resolution increases the GPU load). And no, in 99.9% of the games a GPU does not do stuff that the CPU has to wait on. So, NO, in gaming a GPU CAN NOT BOTTLENECK A CPU. PSA: Online bottleneck calculators are usually made by people who do not understand how bottlenecks work. Made purely to get money from advertisements and people who browse the page. Clickbait. Worse than useless because it's better not having information than working with false information.

Hi, I managed to get my hands on a Gigabyte Aorus Master 3070 as I seen one come in stock. I stupidly didn't think about if my CPU would bottleneck this card and now that I've installed it I'm getting less FPS than I got with my 1080ti. I assume the issue is bottlenecking however can anyone confirm this or suggest any other reasons why? I have an i7-6700k. I am currently debating sending the card back as I am getting drops to below 60fps which is making the games i play feel choppy in comparison to my 1080ti. Thanks in advance

Hey Guys, I am running at lowest 40fps and at most 80fps on the new black ops (Call of Duty®: Black Ops Cold War) - keeping in note that only 5gbs out of the 8gbs of vram is being used on good settings - and I have the following specs; CPU: i5-9600k GPU: RTX 2070 Ram: 32gb 3200MHz My friend averages around 80-90 fps on the same settings with the following specs; CPU: i7-7700 GPU: GTX 1660 Ram: 16gb ??MHz I suspect a cpu bottleneck, would I correct by thinking that? If so, what can you recommend on replacing the cpu with. Edit: All drivers updated and CPU usage (Task Manager) 80-100% in-game. Thanks for the help, Dr.

I'm thinking of building a PC, but I feel like I've got a bottlenecking problem on my hand. My processor is going to be a Ryzen 5 3600, but my GPU is going to be a 3060 Ti. I'm from Australia, so PC Partpicker Aus doesn't show a lot (nor at good prices). I found a relatively cheap 3060 Ti, and it wasn't much more expensive than the 2070 Super I found, so I jumped at the chance, but I thought I might have a bottlenecking problem. So I put the details of my would-be setup into a bottleneck checker, and it came out with a 20% bottleneck. Should I downgrade to something like a 2060 Super, 2070 or 2070 Super and put that money towards a better processor like an i5 10600k?

Hello Guys, i am new here. I got an i3 2120, 8GB DDR3 Ram, and NVidia GTX 1050 ti 4 GB. I would like to upgrade my CPU, But I'm not sure which one from the i7 category would work on my motherboard. Not sure if i can get at least an i7 2600 - 2600k I would really appreciate your help, if somebody is sure and know if this processor is working on my computed I'm buying it right now. my motherboard model : 0M5DCD (Dell Inc.)

So doom eternal came out and my pc is definetly good enough to run it, but when i run performance metrics on the game my cpu is clearly bottlenecking my performance. The problem is that my cpu usage never goes above 50%. Is this an optimization problem or is there something i can do to force my cpu to be used properly. The reccomended requirements for the game are an i7-6700k and a gtx 1060 so i shouldnt have any problems. Furthermore, when i lower my settings i barely get a framerate difference. any help is greatly appreciated

Hey guys, i have this config here and i just want to know if it'll bottleneck while playing games, mostly 1600x900 or 1920x1080 I know the limit of the gpu and the cpu so going on low and a few settings on medium. Do you guys think a cpu upgrade is needed or just something i should think about it, am i losing performance from my 1050ti? sorry for any mistakes, english is not my first language

Does a Ryzen 3 3200G combined with GTX 1650 Super will be a bottleneck build? What could be my replacement or a good combo of build? I am ranging from $600 price range. For gaming and normal video editing. Thanks LTT and Supporters for the answer! :)

Please help my 15 year old game can't even stop lagging. I suspect maybe this is a bottleneck My setup: i know it's crap Intel atom n2600 GMA 3600 (its integrated graphics) 2 GB ram HDD 375 GB 5700 rpm (117 GB free) Another thing I noticed is that the ram usage while I'm gaming can't go higher than 55% If you're wondering I'm playing gta sa. It's fps is stuck around 5 or rarely 20 fps. Yes it's just so fustrurating playing like this. I have used game boost softwares it only boosted around 2 fps. But sometimes it does not effect. I don't know what's really wrong about my laptop or it's just it. It is maybe bottlenecking but I'm not quite sure. It's benchmark is around equal to the pentium 4. So it could be another factor, it's an atom cpu. So well maybe the cpu might actually bottlenecked it. I'm going to overclock it but many said your pc doesn't improve much performance and generate more heat, so I guess it's should be the same crap. Help me.. what should I do. Thanks for ideas. Edit 16/11/20 : I tried a tweak that made my game's texture crappy low. before : 5 fps after: 8 fps Well results should be (experience from other players) fps jumped up slot. Well so here's the important: Gpu (integrated graphics GMA 3600) is bottlenecking. Possible proofs: If I looked up the sky, there is absolutely nothing to render. Fps jumped to 60. When I looked buildings and stuff, fps got to 6. Gpu temp higher than Cpu. Here's what I did to overclock GMA 3600. At first times, I used msi afterburner. It didn't show anything and all the interactive things looks like it cannot be pressed. ( Ofc that old stuff won't do anything with afterburner) Then, I found a program named GMA booster. It said it overclocks GMA graphics but I launch it and it won't work. Then I looked up and actually GMA 3600 is not actually supported.

hello, I'm aware I'm currently bottle necking my GTX 1660 super but I'm wondering if my AMD A-10 7800 APU consistently staying at 100% usage while playing games is safe?????? while in game the temp hovers between 45-55 C.

I have a i5-9600K and I'm wondering what GPU would pair better with it. A rtx 2060 super or a RX 5700 xt. I'm relatively new to PC gaming and need help choosing one considering they could bottleneck my CPU. I'm open to new recommendations on GPU's that could work better with it as well.

I wanna get this out of the way first, I know my cousin is better off with a whole new computer but he wants to keep 300-500 dollars just in case he wants something else. Here is what we are thinking on upgrading from CPU: Amd FX 6300 to a FX 9590 GPU: 1050 Ti to a 1660S RAM: 8GB DDR3 (I think) and just add another stick to make 16GB Will this bottleneck? His CPU temps are 55 avg but we are unsure of what the usages were. I will update this thread as soon as I get more info.

I have a optiplex 790 which brings a i5 2400 and I put in a gtx 790 and i get 120+ fps but i keep getting stutters and fps drops. I have a 250 gb SSD and 16gb ddr3 ram so its not the memory or the ram.

Hello, I currently have an i5 6500, was thinking about getting a GTX 1080ti, should I also be prepared to get a CPU upgrade?

(IF THIS THREAD BELONGS IN A DIFFERENT CATEGORY PLEASE TELL ME) I have just recently bought a 4GB Sapphire Nitro+ RX 480 for my gaming rig but i would just like to know if my current CPU will bottleneck this card, As you can see in the title the CPU is overclocked to 4.8ghz.

Firstly hi. My problem is I'm having really low fps in some games with this GPU. For example: CS:GO with 1024x768 resolution and max settings I can get 120-150 fps H1Z1 Kotk with 1920x1080 resolution and mid settings 50-75 fps League of Legends 1920x1080 resolution and max settings 90-110 fps Some of you people may think it is a good performance but it's not and it feels like 30 fps. I've been thinking to upgrade my motherboard and old cpu to solve this problem but I can't be sure that this is a bottlenecking problem. If so what should I upgrade with my low budget to get full performance of this GPU. GPU : Asus GeForce GTX970 ROG STRIX GDDR5 4GB 256Bit DX12 NVIDIA CPU : i5-2310 2.90 GHz (4 Core) LGA1155 Motherboard : Asus H61-M Pro Ram : Kingston HyperX Savage 16 GB (2x8GB) 1600MHz DDR3

Gonna upgrade to rx 570 soon..pls recommend the g.card vendor too. I’d be much obliged then! Is passive cooling required ?System:A10 7890k Godavari w/ Stock Wraith Cooler8x1 Single Channel G.Skill DDR3 stick580W Deepcool PSUDeepcool Dukase V2 White full towerA88XM-A Mainboard USB3.1 Kingston SSDNow UV400 120GB SATA 3 2.5" Solid State Drive (SUV400S37/120G) WD Green 1TB Internal HDD

Hello, As you can see here, my 6800K seems to be bottlenecking my GTX 1080 in Far Cry 4. One core is locked at 100%, and the other one is pretty high up, while the other cores aren't very high at all. When I move around to an area that doesn't have to render as far out, the utilization goes back to 98-99% as you can see in the pictures below. Settings highest it goes minus motion blur 4x MSAA 1080p - If I run 8X MSAA the bottleneck seems to be gpu limited, and utilization goes back to 99% (TXAA looks too blurry) but I can't get 60 FPS in alot of the map Moving to 1440p soon enough, so this isn't a huge deal, but still don't like seeing it. Seems like an obvious bottleneck to me. Any thoughts?

The actual hell? Why does my laptop only using 3.9 GB of ram when it recognizes 6GB? It's bottlenecking and causes the entire user experience to be utterly slow!! Okay guys, I'll come clean. I've been tinkering around with some settings in MsConfig and disabling things like windows search in Run, as for the advice that has been brought to me from my previous post here: But afterwards... I've realized that EVERYTHING is moving slow...I can't even play online games because the disk is at 100% and everything freezes at the log in screens! As you can see in the attached pic, you'll see that it's a 64-bit Windows 10 OS, so of course, it can use more than 4GB of ram. So what option may I have fiddled with to cause it to limit itself to only using 4gb? What is it that I can do reset the ram to use its 6gb of ram again? I know I need to upgrade to an SSD, but I can't live with 4GB of ram usage! EDIT: I censored my product key.

I am building a new rig. It's not the most high end ever. The Graphics card I will be getting for this is "MSI GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB 6GT OC" (all other components aside). What is the best CPU for this without Bottlenecking it too much? Especially for a game Called ArmA 3 (as if you play the ArmA series, you know they are badly optimised and are very CPU intensive) Thanks

Will a Zotac Gtx 1050 mini bottleneck a overclocked pentium 4 g3258 clocked at 4.2 ghz ? If so will it be crippling

Am i getting bottlenecked? I just upgraded my GPU to gtx 1060 and i can say it performs better. But i am not getting up in 100% GPU usage and i'm suspecting bottlenecking. Specs: CPU: AMD FX-6350 /6 core/~3,5ghz (not overclocked) GPU: GTX 1060 3 GB RAM: 16,0 GB (2, 8GBs) PSU: EVGA 650 G2 - 650W 1 HDD

Hello I am new on this site but a huge fan of linus for a long time. I need to change my GPU HD Readon 7790 to GTX 1070 My present config is : AMD FX 8350+HD RADEON 7790 (DDR 5, 1GB)+20 GB RAM+1 TB HDD+SSD : 256GB+MSI 970A-G43 My Question is : Will gtx 1070 give full performance with msi 970a-g43+Fx 8350+500w+20GB RAM? ll970A-G43 https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/970A-G43.html#hero-specification Thanks

Hello everyone, I just wanted to ask for some PC related help. For my build, I am currently using integrated graphics, and I want to purchase a video card. I need to know if it will bottleneck, and if the performance upgrade will be good enough for some modern-ish games. The card I want to get: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JS2UFO6/?tag=xtremegaminer-20 My specs: Processor: AMD A10-7870K Radeon R7, 12 Compute Cores 4C+8G 3.90 GHz Installed Memory (RAM): 8.00 Gigabytes (6.96 Usable) System Type: 64-Bit Operating System, x64 Based Processor

Hi! This is something that happens to me in almost all demanding games. (For example Witcher 3 ATM) With a little bit of tweaking, I can get most games to run at an almost completely steady 60 FPS. However, I'm quite often getting split second freezes. The FPS counter often shows 59 FPS during the freeze, but it feels like it's just showing the same frame for maybe 0.2 seconds) This doesn't really happen at any particular point in games, it just happens now and then. I don't know if it helps, but my graphics makes a constant high pitched whine when playing games, and this whine stops during the freeze. (I do not think it's "coil whine", it's less of a tone and more of a fan-type of sound) I'm wondering if something could be bottlenecking my performance. Both my graphics card and my CPU maxes out on 100% when this happens. I seem to only use 6/8 gigs of ram. Should I upgrade my CPU? Or is this something I have to accept with a 970 card? Is something else limiting my performance? Specs: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3570K CPU 3.40GHz (4 CPUs) (Intel LGA1155 Core i5 3580K) Gainward GeForce GTX 970 4GB Phantom Crucial DDR3 BallstiX 1600M hz 8GB kit NZXT PHantom Big Tower Corsair CX 500W PSU Samsung SSD 840 Series 120GB Seagate Barracuda 2TB SATA3.0 (This is what my games are on) Windows 10 home